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Good morning! I'm Talya Zax, the Forward's innovation editor and specialist in meandering profiles set in the Berkshires. This is my last day filling in on the Forwarding desk. Today: Galactic hummus, a Kafka biopic, sexual harassment at Harvard and what to do for National Bagel Day.
OUR LEAD STORY Angry about a tweet, Republican senator says Lipstadt is not qualified for antisemitism post. After months of delays, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally held a confirmation hearing for Deborah E. Lipstadt, President Biden's nominee for antisemitism envoy. Sen. Ron Johnson, long suspected of delaying Lipstadt’s hearing over a tweet in which she described comments he made about the Jan. 6 riot as “white supremacy/nationalism,” accepted her apology but advised that his colleagues reject her nomination. Democratic senators — and Lipstadt herself — countered that it’s important to criticize prejudice wherever it appears. “If you can’t call out an antisemitic trope, how in God’s name are you going to do this job?” asked Sen. Bob Menendez. Read the story ➤ Plus ➤The head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America argues in a new OpEd that the Republican delay of Lipstadt’s nomination “has endangered Jewish lives.” Read the essay➤ ‘We all have to be prepared’: Hero rabbi from Texas testifies before Congress.Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who credited security training with helping him and several congregants engineer their escape after hours of being held hostage in their Texas synagogue last month, joined other Jewish leaders in calling for a doubling of federal security funding for nonprofits. “Even though the chances are so remote that violence will be visited upon any one congregation,” he said, “our recent past has shown that tragedy and trauma can happen.” Read his remarks or five key takeaways ➤ Do the Madrigals from Disney’s ‘Encanto’ descend from Sephardic Jews?The magical Madrigals, the family at the heart of the Oscar-nominated smash hit “Encanto,” are close-knit to the point of being smothering. They’re successful, yet they grapple with intergenerational trauma. And their powers come from a candle that has miraculously burned for 50 years — kind of like an oil that lasted eight days. Could they possibly be Jewish, descended from Sephardic Jews who fled across the globe to escape the Spanish Inquisition? We investigated. Read the story ➤ For National Bagel Day, finally, the ultimate bagel book.Sure, you can buy a bagel just about anywhere. But there's nothing quite like the homemade article. In “Bagels, Schmears and a Nice Piece of Fish: A Whole Brunch of Recipes to Make at Home,” Cathy Barrow gives bagel lovers an incentive to learn the craft of bagel making — or, at least, a toothsome opportunity to meditate on the delights of the world's most perfect carbohydrate. Read the story ➤ Plus: We’ve created an ebook by Len Berk, our lox columnist, featuring his essays about what it’s like to be in his 90s and working as a lox slicer at Zabar’s. It’s free with a new, half-price subscription to the Forward. Click here for details ➤ WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY 🤦 Harvard facing scrutiny over sexual harassment investigation. Three women have filed a lawsuit claiming the university ignored allegations against anthropologist John Comaroff, a South African Jew. The case has split Harvard's faculty. More than 90 of Comaroff's colleagues have signed a letter in his defense — and another 50 or so have lambasted them for too swiftly accepting his version of events. (New York Times) 🖥️ A British neo-Nazi used video game manuals to spread hate. Connor Burke, 19, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after admitting he disguised instructions for making improvised explosive devices as a guide to the popular game Minecraft and shared it with thousands of people via social media. Police had found Nazi memorabilia in Burke’s bedroom; his lawyer said he “fell down a rabbit hole” during pandemic lockdowns. (Evening Standard) 😨 A bomb threat forced second gentleman Doug Emhoff to leave a Black History Month event. Emhoff cut a visit to a Washington high school because of a bomb threat. The school was also evacuated. “We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. Police for their work,” said Katie Peters, Emhoff's communications director. (The Hill) 🌕 Is it time to grow chickpeas in space? Yes, according to the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL, which has teamed up with NASA to try growing fresh produce in space. Kale and cabbage were already grown successfully, but the potential galactic hummus market had, until SpaceIL's introduction, been overlooked. Hummus “is a perfect food,” said author Ariel Rosenthal, who consulted on the project. “It will make the moon a better place.” (JTA) 📚 Yiddish women's literature is experiencing an overdue resurgence. Before 2019, just one Yiddish-language novel by an American woman had ever been translated into English. Now, a generation of Yiddish scholars are scouring archives to find novels by women previously thought to have only written poems and memoirs, bringing some long-forgotten voices back into circulation. (New York Times) 🇦🇺 The secret history of Australian Nazis. Australia fought against Germany in World War II. At the same time, a small but highly organized contingent worked to build support for the Third Reich on the home front. Decades later, the full story of these sympathizers — and the extent to which they escaped accountability — is still being uncovered. (The Guardian) 🇬🇧 In the U.K., the Labour party investigated a British Jewish woman — for antisemitism. Diana Neslen, 82, keeps a kosher home and is a regular at her shul. She is also a member of the Labour Party and a vocal anti-Zionist. Labour, which has spent years battling antisemitism accusations against its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, launched an investigation into her activism, but dropped it after Neslen threatened to sue. “I want Jewish people to be able to be as free talking about anti-Zionism as they are about Zionism,” she said. (The Guardian) ✍️ Franz Kafka is getting the biopic treatment. Polish screenwriter and director Agnieszka Holland is set to bring the life of Kafka, the Czech Jewish writer most famous for “The Metamorphosis,” to the screen. The producers promise “a dazzling kaleidoscopic mosaic of a film” about the man responsible for all of our worst nightmares about insects, but the film isn't slated to start shooting until 2023. (Hollywood Reporter) What else we’re reading ➤ “Maus” isn't the only book being banned in schools … A 1938 home film taken on vacation preserved a Polish Jewish town decimated in the Holocaust … Comedian Amy Schumer's new TV series taps into her adolescent trauma. ON THE CALENDAR On this day: In honor of Groundhog Day, we’re taking a look at the Jews of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Starting with Sam Light, a coal mine operator who, in 1952, wore a top hat and tails as he held up the town’s famed groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. It was Light who came up with the now familiar “Hear ye! Hear ye!” chant that refers to Phil as the “prognosticator of prognosticators.” It was just a fun local tradition until Light’s wife, Elaine, brought the animal to the “Today Show” in 1960, an appearance that helped put the small town on the national map.
The first Jews moved to Punxsutawney in 1830; by the turn of the century there was a synagogue that grew to 300 members. “The Jewish community was powerful and important to this town,” said Jeffrey Lundy, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Read the story ➤
Last year on this day, we reported that once upon a time, Jewish pirates ruled the seas.
On the Hebrew calendar, it’s the first day of Adar, when the plague of darkness descended upon Egypt.
ONE WEEK FROM TONIGHT VIDEO OF THE DAY In honor of National Bagel Day, we turn our eyes to yesteryear — specifically 2016, when the Forward was on hand to witness the very first National Bagel Eating Contest in Huntington, N.Y. With a $500 prize at stake, contestants sought to chow through as many bagels as possible in five minutes. Who took home the laurels? Watch and see. ––– Thanks to Rudy Malcom and Rob Eshman for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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